we are WAY ahead where it counts

the surface!



(ht: feministe)

sure they DO all agree with him

they just won't say it aloud. they know what happened to the evil soul-less holier than thou judgemental rabid homophobe buttars will happen to THEM too. well nothing much happened actually. he was just booted from a couple o' committees.

i don't give a shite whether you like someone or not. i DO give a shite if you deny someone rights based on YOUR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS (which CANNOT be scientifically proven)

Buttars: 'I don't have anything to apologize for'
Senate » He remains defiant after anti-gay remarks bring discipline at Capitol

Buttars: 'I don't have anything to apologize for'
Senate » He remains defiant after anti-gay remarks bring discipline at Capitol

By Robert Gehrke

The Salt Lake Tribune
Despite being stripped of his membership and chairmanship of two Senate committees for his anti-gay rant, Sen. Chris Buttars was defiant Friday.

He strongly disagreed with the decision by Senate leaders from his own party to reprimand him and refused to apologize to those who said they were hurt by his comments.

"I don't have anything to apologize for," the West Jordan Republican said.

In a statement posted on the Senate GOP's Web site, he went further.

"When it comes right down to it, I would rather be censured for doing what I think is right, than be honored by my colleagues for bowing to the pressure of a special-interest group that has been allowed to act with impunity," Buttars said.

The Senate reprimand came after Buttars said to a documentary filmmaker that homosexuals were the "greatest threat to America," compared them to radical Muslims, said they lack morals and want special rights.

"It's the beginning of the end," Buttars said. "Oh, it's worse than that. Sure. Sodom and Gomorrah was localized. This is worldwide." ...........

courageous

Erase my grandfather's name at Yad Vashem

by Jean-Moïse Braitberg

Mr. President of the State of Israel, I am writing to you to intervene with the appropriate authorities to withdraw, from the Yad Vashem memorial dedicated to the memory of Jewish victims of Nazism, the name of my grandfather, Moshe Brajtberg, gassed at Treblinka in 1943, and those of other members of my who family died during deportation to various Nazi camps during World War II. I ask you to honor my request, Mr. Chairman, because what took place in Gaza, and more generally, the injustices to the Arab people of Palestine for sixty years, disqualifies Israel to be the center of the memory of the harm done to Jews, and thus to all humanity.

You see, since my childhood, I lived in amongst survivors of the death camps. I saw the numbers tattooed on their arms, I heard the story of torture; I knew the impossible grief and I shared their nightmares. I was taught that these crimes must never happen again, that never again must man, because of ethnicity or religion despise other man, mock his Human Rights of living a safe, dignified life, without barriers, and hope, so remote be it, of a future of peace and prosperity.

Yet Mr. President, I note that despite dozens of resolutions adopted by the international community, despite the glaring evidence of the injustices done to the Palestinian people since 1948, despite the hopes raised in Oslo, and despite the recognition of the right of Israeli Jews to live in peace and security, repeatedly reaffirmed by the Palestinian Authority, the only answers given by successive governments of your country have been violence, bloodshed, confinement, incessant controls, colonization, deprivations..............................

VERY apt worse ones of the week i must say!

success!

my friends and i did OUR part to help!
(pictures taken at the half door)


Indian pub attacks prompt pink knickers protest
Randeep Ramesh in Delhi
It was a protest that spawned a movement. Fed up with moral policing by radical Hindu groups who had attacked women in pubs and targeted unmarried couples celebrating Valentine's Day, a group of women decided to fight back – with pink knickers.

The result was a remarkably successful dirty dissent. Not only did 40,000 items of rose-tinted underwear, much of it apparently unwashed, end up flooding the offices of the Sri Ram Sena (Lord Ram's Army), the non-violent act defused much of the tension surrounding the acts of vigilantism by self-appointed guardians of "Indian culture".

Spearheading the new movement is "A Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women", a group of young female journalists, lawyers and academics, who began with a Facebook group protesting at the attacks on several young women last month in a pub in Mangalore, a university town in the southern state of Karnataka. Yesterday it had nearly 50,000 members.

The debate comes at a time of tumultuous social change in India, where a new generation of Indian women are experiencing new freedoms such as dating and drinking while navigating ingrained conservative values about what is acceptable behaviour............

hmmmmmmmm i sit corrected

there IS a governor out there who DID turn down some (and i do mean SOME) of the stimulus money. who does he think he's helping here? surely not the citizens of louisiana

this is downright scary

Jindal Rejects $90 Million In Recovery Funding That Would Have Benefited 25,000 Louisiana Residents»

When President Obama signed the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act last week, it included three different provisions to benefit unemployed workers. The first provided funding to states that allowed for a $25 per week increase in benefits. The second extended the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program which gives 20 weeks of federally-funded unemployment benefits to individuals “who had already collected all regular state benefits,” while the third provision widened the pool of people eligible to receive unemployment benefits.

Today, however, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced his intention to oppose changing state law to allow his Lousiana citizens to qualify for the second two unemployment provisions. Jindal said the state would only be accepting money to increase the unemployment insurance payments for those who currently qualify for unemployment insurance.

In all, Jindal turned away nearly $100 million in federal aid for his state’s unemployed residents...........

is every one of them (republicans)

a lunatic? off their rockers? a liar? an idiot? who GOT us into this mess to begin with (i'm not saying the democrats are blameless. they're complicit in everything here. they didn't open their mouths when they should have. they didn't stop things when they should have).

the cost of the war in iraq (at this moment) is; $765,549,483,984. how many mortgages could that have saved?



Keyes: Stop Obama or U.S. 'will cease to exist'
David Edwards and Rachel Oswald
Alan Keyes, a three-time presidential candidate, called President Obama a "radical communist" and a "usurper" and said with him in charge, America "is going to cease to exist" at a pro-life fundraiser Thursday.

"Obama is a radical communist and I think it is becoming clear. That is what I told people in Illinois and now everybody realizes it is coming true," said Keyes who ran unsuccessfully against Obama for the Senate in 2004. "He is going to destroy this country and we are either going to stop him or the United States of America is going to cease to exist," said Keyes.

In an interview in Hastings, Neb. with a KHAS reporter at the fundraiser, Keyes called Obama an "abomination" for some of his pro-choice views.

"The man is an abomination," Keyes said, going on to accuse Obama of being supportive of infanticide. ".............

at first i thought it was one pissed off goose

but perhaps it's one crazy-in-love goose. something to consider



(ht: boing boing who got it from tywkiwdbi which is a GREAT site as well)

friday surreal humor

only it's real and NOT funny

Prince of Darkness Denies Own Existence

By Dana Milbank
Listening to neoconservative mastermind Richard Perle at the Nixon Center yesterday, there was a sense of falling down the rabbit hole. In real life, Perle was the ideological architect of the Iraq war and of the Bush doctrine of preemptive attack. But at yesterday's forum of foreign policy intellectuals, he created a fantastic world in which:

1. Perle is not a neoconservative.

2. Neoconservatives do not exist.

3. Even if neoconservatives did exist, they certainly couldn't be blamed for the disasters of the past eight years.

"There is no such thing as a neoconservative foreign policy," Perle informed the gathering, hosted by National Interest magazine. "It is a left critique of what is believed by the commentator to be a right-wing policy." ................

the honor (from buzzflash) this week goes to.............

i talked about this very thing (repubs voting AGAINST the stimulus package yet SNATCHING THAT MONEY RIGHT UP) a few postings ago

For eagerly taking stimulus money after denouncing it, Lindsey Graham is the GOP Hypocrite of the Week

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Welcome back to the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Talk about foreclosing on a bakery and then demanding a free cake. That's what most Republicans who voted against the "Main Street Job Creation Act" -- denouncing it as just short of Satanic -- are doing for the most part. They are now crowing about what all that "wasted" money will do to benefit their home states or districts.

Take Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. The Neo-Confederate U.S. Senator is wasting no time in boasting about bringing home the bacon when just a few short days ago, he was denouncing a jobs creation bill as pork.

As ThinkProgress.org observes:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been one of Congress's most vocal opponents of the economic recovery package. In fact, he and several other Republicans -- including John McCain -- introduced an alternative bill, which focuses mostly on massive tax breaks for corporations....

However, when [Wolf] Blitzer asked him whether South Carolina should "take the money," Graham replied: "I think that, yes, from my point of view, I -- you don't want to be crazy here. I mean, if there's going to be money on the table that will help my state, but I've got a job to do up here, and that is to try to help people and not damn the next generation."

In essence, Graham is saying he opposed the "Main Street Job Creation Act" even though it would be political suicide not to distribute the money to the voters of his state. He was joined in rabid obstruction of the bill by his fellow Republican, Senator Jim "Stonewall Jackson" DeMint.

As BuzzFlash Editor Mark Karlin proposed a couple of weeks back, the state of any senator who opposed the "Main Street Job Creation Act" should only receive half their allotted funds. If both senators opposed the bill, the state should receive no federal allotment from the legislation. ..........

'they're living in the tropics

loons are some of my favorite birds

i don't like them being my congressional representation (she isn't but i'm just sayin'.............)

yes, it really IS

オバマさんの肌はアミ(小さなエビ)のつくだ煮を使用。髪は黒ゴマで、歯はかまぼこ。

obama sushi! (ht: to whatever the heck this site is called

wow

this is NOT a person is right!>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>




from feministing


North Dakota abortion ban passes House
North Dakota's House of Representatives has passed a fetal personhood bill, HB 1572, that declares fertilized eggs have the same rights as human beings. Like the recently defeated ballot measure in Colorado, this is designed to pose a legal challenge to Roe v. Wade. It wouldn't just ban abortion, but also contraception.

From a press release from Planned Parenthood:

"HB 1572 is dangerous, far reaching and allows the government, not women and families, to make critical decisions about health care," said Sarah Stoesz, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota (PPMNS).

"Women and families, not politicians, should decide what's best for their unique circumstances. Whether the issue is abortion, birth control, or in vitro fertilization, women, in consultation with doctors should make these personal medical decisions," said Stoesz..........

tell me

how could it hurt to actually KNOW where our food comes from? (hint: the answer is it would NOT hurt at all. it would be BENEFICIAL)

Vilsack Calls for Stricter Food Labels



by Mary Clare Jalonick

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is throwing out food labeling rules proposed by the Agriculture Department just before George W. Bush left office, saying it wants labels for fresh meat and other foods that would show more clearly where an animal or food came from, according to consumer groups who've been briefed on the issue.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told several consumer groups Tuesday in a conference call that he will ask the meat industry to voluntarily follow stricter guidelines for new package labels designed to specify a food's country of origin, according to three people who were on the call. If the industry does not comply, the administration will write new rules, according to those who spoke with Vilsack.

The labeling requirements, which would apply to fresh meats and some perishable fruits and vegetables, long have been debated in Congress and were enacted as part of a wide-ranging farm bill last year. While the meat industry and retailers responsible for the labels have protested the changes - saying they are burdensome and could lead to higher prices - consumer groups and northern states ranchers who compete with the Canadian beef industry favor them.

All sides worked out a compromise during debate over the farm bill last year, but much of the law was left open to interpretation by the Agriculture Department. Supporters of the law were not happy with the Bush administration's version of the rules, which they said allowed meat companies to be vague about where an animal was born, raised and slaughtered.........

i liked this a great deal

and of course agree with him


Hollywood's New Censors

by John Pilger

When I returned from the war in Vietnam, I wrote a film script as an antidote to the myth that the war had been an ill-fated noble cause. The producer David Puttnam took the draft to Hollywood and offered it to the major studios, whose responses were favorable – well, almost. Each issued a report card in which the final category, "politics," included comments such as: "This is real, but are the American people ready for it? Maybe they'll never be."

By the late 1970s, Hollywood judged Americans ready for a different kind of Vietnam movie. The first was The Deer Hunter which, according to Time, "articulates the new patriotism." The film celebrated immigrant America, with Robert de Niro as a working class hero ("liberal by instinct") and the Vietnamese as sub-human Oriental barbarians and idiots, or "gooks." The dramatic peak was reached during recurring orgiastic scenes in which GIs were forced to play Russian roulette by their Vietnamese captors. This was made up by the director Michael Cimino, who also made up a story that he had served in Vietnam. "I have this insane feeling that I was there," he said. "Somehow... the line between reality and fiction has become blurred." ..........

the headline of this article was offputting

until i actually read the article itself. of COURSE it makes sense.

men are studs if they fuck. women are sluts (even if they just flirt)

If Women Do Have Lower Libidos, It Would Make Sense
By Amanda Marcotte, RH Reality Check.
Another Valentine's Day, another round of features on sex and love, and another bout of studiously ignoring the role sexism might play in diminishing women's sexual desire. Consumer Reports published a sex poll, and once again women's on-average lower sexual desire is treated as an unfortunate but largely inexplicable phenomenon. In this, they stuck to the mainstream media trend of talking about women's desire -- the lack of it, really -- without addressing any social causes for why that might occur. Most media outlets treat women's desire as a free-standing, unchangeable misfortune brought on by fate or biology, but certainly not worth exploring in depth.

Journalists refuse to explore polling data demonstrating a reported gap in men and women's sexual desires for the same reason people refuse to really tackle the issue in their own relationships. Even in the polling data citing the top six reasons people don't feel desire, two of the reasons given, constituting 59% of respondents, were just a restatement of the problem, and not really a reason. (Forty percent of respondents said they just weren't in the mood, and 19% were too busy watching TV, which is a polite way of saying they aren't in the mood, since people in the mood use Tivo.) But really addressing the reason men and women feel this gap in desire means asking hard questions about how our society treats men and women differently, and doing that means signing up for defensive responses. No wonder journalists writing pieces on the issue avoid the question strenuously. .........

i want to know where the hell

all of these people (as in the republican governors mentioned in this story) were when king george was shoving OUR MONEY down the throats (and directly into the pockets of) the leaders of pakistan? where were they when king george was tossing our money into that burning inferno that is known as iraq? where were they when some of the banks and mortgage company's lending practices started to stink? huh? where the fuck were they then? did they say anything THEN?

i'll bet they may put up one hell of a giant stink because a democrat is in the white house now and they need to play like 7 year olds. i'll also bet THEY'LL TAKE THE MONEY

so stfu you bunch of sniveling idiots (and i'm NOT in any way shape or form saying democrats are innocent)


GOP governors consider turning down stimulus money

By MELINDA DESLATTE, Associated Press Writer Melinda Deslatte, Associated Press Writer

BATON ROUGE, La. – A handful of Republican governors are considering turning down some money from the federal stimulus package, a move opponents say puts conservative ideology ahead of the needs of constituents struggling with record foreclosures and soaring unemployment.

Though none has outright rejected the money available for education, health care and infrastructure, the governors of Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alaska, South Carolina and Idaho have all questioned whether the $787 billion bill signed into law this week will even help the economy.

"My concern is there's going to be commitments attached to it that are a mile long," said Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who considered rejecting some of the money but decided Wednesday to accept it. "We need the freedom to pick and choose. And we need the freedom to say 'No thanks.'"

U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the No. 3 House Democrat, said the governors — some of whom are said to be eyeing White House bids in 2012 — are putting their own interests first.....

what's wrong with THIS picture?

the head of the epa actually LISTENING to scientists? why king george must have been dethroned.........and a new administration (one with morals and a conscience AND a brain) must have been installed. is it too late to save our planet? i don't know. i hope not
E.P.A. Expected to Regulate Carbon Dioxide

By JOHN M. BRODER

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to act for the first time to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists blame for the warming of the planet, according to top Obama administration officials.

The decision, which most likely would play out in stages over a period of months, would have a profound impact on transportation, manufacturing costs and how utilities generate power. It could accelerate the progress of energy and climate change legislation in Congress and form a basis for the United States’ negotiating position at United Nations climate talks set for December in Copenhagen.

The environmental agency is under order from the Supreme Court to make a determination whether carbon dioxide is a pollutant that endangers public health and welfare, an order that the Bush administration essentially ignored despite near-unanimous belief among agency experts that research points inexorably to such a finding...........

mother blood

(ht: matriarchy exists from feministing)

armour!

stop by dark roasted blend to see some wicked cool armour

pictures from royal armouries and

age of armour

Armet of Henry VIII known as the Horned helmet. Innsbruck, Austria, 1511–14

if i was an author

and i was invited to this festival and i knew they were banning certain books I WOULDN'T GO. period

well then let's be honest I WOULDN'T GO TO DUBAI for any reason any time (but that's not my point)

Geraldine Bedell's novel banned in Dubai because of gay character
Jack Malvern

A book festival in the Middle East that claims to celebrate the “world of books in all its infinite variety” has banned a British author because her novel contains references to homosexuality.

The first International Festival of Literature in Dubai has attracted dozens of world-class authors, including Margaret Atwood and Louis de Bernières, with promises that it will be relaxed, vibrant and diverse. One author has found otherwise.

Geraldine Bedell's book The Gulf Between Us was greeted with enthusiasm by organisers because of its setting in the Middle East, but the mood changed swiftly when they discovered a gay character.

Isobel Abulhoul, director of the festival, wrote to Ms Bedell to tell her that she was not invited. “I do not want our festival remembered for the launch of a controversial book,” she wrote. “If we launched the book and a journalist happened to read it, then you could imagine the political fallout that would follow.” ........

oh and fuck "sir" ranulph fiennes too

.............Sir Ranulph Fiennes said the festival organisers were merely being practical. “I think that if anybody out there wants to establish a festival of some sort, they would be rather stupid to offend the locals in any way.” .........

america forever?

please! we ALL have the SAME RIGHTS here (well we SHOULD ALL have the same rights here)

what a bunch of lunatic evil-disease-ridden-souled humans these people are

i can't even imagine WHY THE FEEL SO THREATENED by someone who is gay or transgendered. methinks they doth protest WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too much

Boiling over: Rhetoric in gay rights debate heating up
Common Ground Initiative » Two more bills face hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

By Rosemary Winters

The Salt Lake Tribune
With the Utah Legislature set to consider two gay-rights bills Tuesday and one Wednesday, rhetoric from opponents is not just heating up, it's boiling over.

On Sunday, a group called America Forever ran full-page ads in The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News calling on Utahns to "stop the homosexual movement." The ad also condemns Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. for endorsing the Common Ground Initiative, a legislative push that would offer inheritance and medical-decision-making rights to same-sex couples and make it illegal to fire or evict someone for being gay or transgender.

Despite supporting rights for lesbian and gay couples -- including civil unions, which aren't on the table at the Legislature -- ...................

........ America Forever, which solicits donations in its print ad, does not have a current Utah business license as a nonprofit nor is it registered as a political-issues or political-action committee, according to state Web sites.

The ad compares being gay to being "druggies and hookers," labels homosexuality as "anti-species behavior" and concludes that "gays should be forced not to display" their sexual orientation. ...........

by NO means is burger king the ONLY one

war on greed

duh!

Bristol Palin: Abstinence for all teens 'not realistic'

f**k terrence howard

now remember, this is the VERY SAME terrence howard who said women were UNCLEAN if they don't use baby wipes after 'freshening up' (and he said so VERY MUCH MORE ABOUT 'EM TOO. just check out that first link). what a gem that terrence howard is!



Terrence Howard's Fists Of Fury

ctor, a Chris Brown supporter, was once nabbed for beating wife

FEBRUARY 17--After Chris Brown's arrest for assaulting his girlfriend Rihanna, the actor Terrence Howard chose to salute the alleged batterer. "It's just life, man. Chris is a great guy. He'll be alright," said Howard. "And Rihanna knows he loves her, you know? They'll be alright." Though Howard would later apologize for his remarks, the star's own rap sheet offers an explanation as to why he would jump to the side of an accused domestic abuser. Police and court records reveal that Howard, 39, was once arrested for a similar crime, the details of which have not been previously reported. The actor, who co-starred in "Iron Man" and was nominated in 2006 for an Academy Award for his role in "Hustle & Flow," was arrested by Pennsylvania cops in September 2001 for assaulting his estranged wife. According to a Whitemarsh Police Department report, after Howard and Lori McCommas argued on the phone, the actor warned, "Don't disrespect me by hanging up on me or I'll come over and hurt you.".................

there were two stories about two very different musicians

in the nyt today

they both were a great influence on today's music and they both were special to me.

i didn't know estelle bennett was ill. i didn't know the pain she suffered. i DO know her music (the music of teh ronettes) was special. it got me moving and grooving. and c'mon my peeps LOOK AT THAT HAIR!

A Life of Troubles Followed a Singer’s Burst of Fame

By BEN SISARIO

She was the quiet Ronette, the one people called the prettiest, the one who was content to remain in the shadow of her younger sister, Ronnie, because even in the shadow there’s still some spotlight.

For a few years in the mid-1960s Estelle Bennett lived a girl-group fairy tale, posing for magazine covers with her fellow Ronettes and dating the likes of George Harrison and Mick Jagger. Along with her sister and their cousin Nedra Talley, she helped redefine rock ’n’ roll femininity.

The Ronettes delivered their songs’ promises of eternal puppy love in the guise of tough vamps from the streets of New York. Their heavy mascara, slit skirts and piles of teased hair suggested both sex and danger, an association revived most recently by Amy Winehouse..............
Scott Gries/Getty Images

From left, Nedra Talley, Estelle Bennett, Phil Spector and Ronnie Bennett in a Los Angeles recording studio in 1963.................
shoot, now let's watch these babes shake their moneymakers! dang - you go grrrls!


Louie Bellson, Dynamic Jazz Drummer, Dies at 84
By NATE CHINEN
Louie Bellson, a crisp and dazzling drummer who worked with many of the major figures of the swing era and a gracious entertainer who made frequent appearances at the White House and on “The Tonight Show,” died on Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 84 and lived in Los Angeles. His death was announced by Remo, the drum company for which he was a vice president. Matt Connors, the company’s manager for artist relations, said Mr. Bellson had been recovering from a broken hip since November.

Mr. Bellson was a dynamic, spectacular soloist known for his use of two bass drums, a technique he pioneered as a teenager and developed from a novelty into a serious mode of expression. But he wasn’t strictly a solo exhibitionist: his attentiveness and precision made him a highly successful sideman, and he was capable of extreme subtlety.

He always proudly maintained that Duke Ellington had called him the world’s greatest drummer. During his tenure with the Ellington band in the early 1950s he was often granted a long drum feature, which he attacked with relish and poise. He also wrote compositions like “The Hawk Talks” and “Skin Deep” that were regularly performed by the band. Later, in 1965, he participated in Ellington’s first Sacred Concert. ..........

ska!

(ht: boing boing)

the bbc has a video up

of a fireball in the sky

a tv station in austin was filming a race (running) and got it on video

here's the link (can't embed the video). oh, the big boyz say it is NOT debris from the two satellites that just collided

space ghost does meet the press

the fda is almost worthless

in my opinion. i don't know if they're being paid off or the government demands them to be silent or what.

our food is full of maggots, our makeup is full of lead and mercury.

Roses Are Red, Lipstick (Still) Has Lead
By Stacy Malkan, AlterNet.
Any day now, President Obama will name the head of the Food and Drug Administration, and the question is: Will the new FDA revive its passion for the public interest, or continue giving consumers the toxic kiss off?

Case in point: lead in lipstick. More than a year after health groups in the U.S. reported that top-selling lipsticks contain lead, FDA is sitting on the results of its own research.

Meanwhile, new tests reveal that lipstick isn't the only make-up with a heavy-metal problem. Health Canada announced last week that if found lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium during routine testing of children's face paints. The results were immediately announced to the public as the government evaluates next steps.

Health Canada is also conducting a major review of chemicals in cosmetics, and creating an "ingredient hotlist" to prevent harmful chemicals from entering beauty products in the future.

Here at home, Americans are left to wonder about the safety of cosmetics. Unlike Health Canada, the U.S. FDA has no toxic-chemical designation, does not conduct routine safety testing of personal care products, and -- as the lipstick saga shows -- doesn't even bother to share its science with the public...................

will i am wants to know

Who Are the Colored People?

i am so proud to have received a NAACP award by my black community...

because at one point in time i wasn't even considered "black enough"...

yes...

i am a black man...

i was raised in an all mexican neighborhood...

i attended great schools in white areas...

so...growing up i was looked at as odd...

black people didn't think i was "black enough"

white people thought i was different than other blacks...

and mexicans thought i was dominican...

life was colorful...

if it wasn't for that diversity i never would have known what life truly had to offer...

people fought for me to attend brentwood sci mag, paul revere middle school, and palisades high...

people fought for my freedoms..............................

(read the rest of will's post at the link above then watch his video below)

not only did we have NO right

to invade and destroy iraq, we promised to rebuild it. did we? what do YOU think?

and who will be held accountable for this? for years and years and years, king george and his bunch o' good ol' whiteboyz literally THREW OUR money into the abyss that is iraq (we made it that way). while i would have NO problems if the money was spent on the care and protection of our service members, the majority was NOT. it is in someone's pocket. that someone is NOT you or i

Missing Iraq billions could be 'greatest fraud in US history'
Stephen C. Webster
The US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the Army's criminal Investigation Command and the Justice Department are investigating US soldiers and officials in the alleged misuse of a portion of the $125 billion initially sent to Iraq for reconstruction shortly after the fall of Saddam.

Monday, The Independent's Iraq correspondent Patrick Cockburn reported the inspectors believe misuse may account for over $50 billion, exceeding the scope of Bernie Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme and making it potentially the "greatest fraud in US history."

"In one case, auditors working for SIGIR discovered that $57.8m was sent in 'pallet upon pallet of hundred-dollar bills' to the US comptroller for south-central Iraq, Robert J Stein Jr, who had himself photographed standing with the mound of money," wrote Cockburn. "He is among the few US officials who were in Iraq to be convicted of fraud and money-laundering.
............

i don't WANT to see them

but i think we all HAVE to see them. the people coming back this way are NOT just numbers. they were brave members of our military. they had family and friends. they served OUR nation and they served ALL OF US. it makes the war(s) PERSONAL. it puts faces on our fallen heroes. we NEED to see this

Pentagon Rethinks Photo Ban on Coffins Bearing War Dead
By Ann Scott Tyson and Mark Berman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Every week, Air Force cargo jets land and taxi down the runway at Dover Air Force Base, Del., carrying the remains of fallen U.S. troops. After a chaplain says a simple prayer, an eight-man military honor guard removes the metal "transfer cases" from the planes and carries them to a mortuary van.

The flag-draped coffins are a testament to the toll of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as to the sacrifice borne by those who serve in the military and their families. But this ceremony, known as the "dignified transfer of remains" and performed nearly 5,000 times since the start of the wars, is hidden from the American public view by the Pentagon.

President Obama said last week that he is considering lifting the ban on photographs and videos at Dover, in place since the Persian Gulf War in 1991, raising fundamental questions about the impact of such images on the public morale in wartime. .............


picture: Coffins of fallen troops arrive at Dover Air Force Base, Del. The Air Force released this undated photo after a Freedom of Information Act request. (U.S. Air Force - Via Reuters)

i never understood

how people could believe WE were the only ones out here. we're so small and stupid and ugly (inside) and insignificant. we pollute our planet. we fight and kill each other. we don't clothe our poor. we don't feed our needy. we don't heal our sick. no one WANTS to contact us

Galaxy has 'billions of Earths'

There could be one hundred billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, a US conference has heard.

Dr Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Science said many of these worlds could be inhabited by simple lifeforms.

He was speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago.

So far, telescopes have been able to detect just over 300 planets outside our Solar System.

Very few of these would be capable of supporting life, however. Most are gas giants like our Jupiter, and many orbit so close to their parent stars that any microbes would have to survive roasting temperatures.

But, based on the limited numbers of planets found so far, Dr Boss has estimated that each Sun-like star has on average one "Earth-like" planet.

This simple calculation means there would be huge numbers capable of supporting life...........

love it!

watch it!

Rhianna, V-Day, and Violence Against Women

Posted by: Lauren
from feministe

this is cool

thinking machine 4

found via bifurcated rivets

WOMEN, KNOW YOUR LIMITS

this is one of THE best videos i have EVER seen! it's marvelous



clip from harry enfield and chums
from boing boing

Women, Know Your Limits.

Posted by Xeni Jardin,

interesting to watch

sometimes hard but you can't turn away



from ectoplasmosis!

The Inventiveness Of Failure

Posted by Ross Rosenberg

sunday humor ignorance

what a steamin' pile


Virginia GOP Chair goes all Cro-Magnon on Darwin, on his birthday
By Josh

Yesterday was the birthday of Lincoln and Darwin, and Virginia GOP chairman Jeff Frederick couldn't pass up the opportunity to go all Cro-Magnon on the father of modern biology.

Frederick obviously put a lot of thought into his assault on evolution and created a foolproof (or so it seemed) plan -- put Darwin up alongside Lincoln and let the people see Darwin for the monster he was.

First he talked about Lincoln; it went haltingly but we got his point:

"Abraham Lincoln is best know (sic), as you all well know, for freeing the slaves by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation affirming in his Gettyburg (sic) Address in 19, I'm sorry, 1863..."

Then on to that bad, bad man:

"Darwin however is best known for the theory of evolution, arguing that men are not only, quote, are only, not, not created, but they are not equal, as some are more evolved... Darwin's theory was used by atheists to explain away the belief in God."
.............

don't read this

if you're just about to eat. OR, if you've JUST eaten. OR if you're thinking about eating. ewwwwwwwwwww

i really had NO idea. really i didn't
The Maggots in Your Mushrooms
By E. J. LEVY
THE Georgia peanut company at the center of one of our nation’s worst food-contamination scares has officially reached a revolting new low: a recent inspection by the Food and Drug Administration discovered that the salmonella-tainted plant was also home to mold and roaches. You may be grossed out, but insects and mold in our food are not new. The F.D.A. actually condones a certain percentage of “natural contaminants” in our food supply — meaning, among other things, bugs, mold, rodent hairs and maggots.

In its (falsely) reassuringly subtitled booklet “The Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of Natural or Unavoidable Defects in Foods That Present No Health Hazards for Humans,” the F.D.A.’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition establishes acceptable levels of such “defects” for a range of foods products, from allspice to peanut butter.

Among the booklet’s list of allowable defects are “insect filth,” “rodent filth” (both hair and excreta pellets), “mold,” “insects,” “mammalian excreta,” “rot,” “insects and larvae” (which is to say, maggots), “insects and mites,” “insects and insect eggs,” “drosophila fly,” “sand and grit,” “parasites,” “mildew” and “foreign matter” (which includes “objectionable” items like “sticks, stones, burlap bagging, cigarette butts, etc.”)...........

my friends and i doing our part on valentine's day for a consortium of pub-going, loose and forward women
cashy, lk, maria, juan, ty, andy, tim
the facebook group

the pink chaddi campaign blog

of course this was at the half door